The Impact of Marketing Strategies and Behavior of Small and Medium Enterprises on their Business Growth

Abstract

As per the scholars, the economic growth of developing countries can be sustained by the expansion of private sector, as they are the engine of growth. According to the previous studies it has been observed that the SMEs have become a crucial segment and a major section of private sector in developing countries consists of SMEs. As such, it is important to accelerate the growth of SMEs in order to gain sustainable development in the country. But, according to the past research studies there is a high failure rate of SMEs in Sri Lanka. According to the literature, there are several reasons affect for this high failure rate. Implementation of the correct strategies and the behavior of entrepreneurs are important factors to be considered for the growth of SMEs. As per the white paper 2002, the implementations of the correct marketing strategies are vital factor for the growth of SMEs. Therefore the problem centered in this research was to identify the impact of marketing strategies and behavior of SMEs on their business growth in Sri Lanka. This study was based on secondary and primary data. Primary data was collected through the method of sample survey and for this purpose a structured questionnaire was used as the research instrument. Data was gathered by the sample of 100 entrepreneurs in Gampaha district who were engaged in the manufacturing sector.Both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics such as correlation, and partial correlation were applied through SPSS to test the validity of formulated hypotheses. The findings revealed that there was no significant impact of marketing strategies on their business growth. Moreover, there was no impact of the behavior of the entrepreneurs and the business growth.